The 1970 Season

The off season for the International Roller Derby League would provide some surprises.  The biggest one happened to be a split of the Bay Bombers team.

 

The two teams would be the San Francisco Bay Bombers and the Oakland Bay Bombers.  Charlie O'Connell would head the San Francisco version while Ken Monte handled the Oakland version.  The teams skated in different parts of the country during the Bay Area off season.

 

San Francisco skated in the Midwest and the East while Oakland skated in the South and Southwest.

 

The teams did skate in a Championship Game of sorts in April 1970 at Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis before the West Coast season would restart in May.  The San Franciscans would edge out the Oaklands, 31-30.

San Francisco would head back to the Bay Area while Oakland would continue skating in Texas until about the middle of May before disbanding the team for the year.

The San Francisco Bay Bombers would start the 1970 Western season strong in winning four of their first five series.  It appeared that the defending champion Braves were strong as well.  It would lead to something that Jerry Seltzer, the promoter never did before.

On July 4, 1970, the first Fourth Of July Spectacular would take place at the Oakland Coliseum.  The Bombers would take on the Braves before around 28,000 fans.  Despite Charlie O'Connell getting tossed out of the game in the sixth period, the Bombers held on in the final skating period to defeat the Braves, 41-38.  They would go on to win that series.

 

Rumor has it that O'Connell got himself tossed out because of a barbecue that was planned early in the year. 

 

Three weeks later, the Bombers would defeat the same Braves team in the Championship Game of the Founder's Cup in the first overtime period.  It was played at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

 

And in the Championship Game in late September, the Bombers would complete the Western season with a win over a very good and surprising Chicago Pioneers team.  The Braves, who won it all in 1969, would eventually fade to fourth during the consolation game.

 

In inter-league action, the Bombers would face only one NSD Team, the New Yorkers (New York Bombers) during the regular season and would sweep them in five games.  It appeared that seeing Roller Games would begin to be a thing of the past.

 

What would the post season bring about.  The next post will have some answers.